[Usability]Usability: Menu System Proposal

[Christopher Warner <zanee kernelcode com>]

Zanee:

I reported this awhile back, but since it?s not really an URGENT TASK!!!
it hasn?t been addressed yet
http://bugzilla.ximian.com/show_bug.cgi?id=4457

I'd love to hear what you and the UI group have to say about menu
issues-- they're certainly not easy to resolve.

Menus, for a long time, were huge and complicated and unintiutive, and
so we rearranged them and BOY did people get mad when that happened.
So.. Naturally people are hesitant to try and "fix" them any more.

The same syndrome, I think, happens with things like the GTK themes--
the "default" theme is, frankly, not very attractive. Yet nobody will
change it, because any alternative is still angering for people.

a.

Here are my thoughts on the subject feel free to edit this, add, delete
where need be. The default gtk theme issue I think is irrlevant as
people should just come to a general concensus. Majority rules on the
default gtk theme and be done with it. Arguing over a theme I feel
impedes progress on important things like cut&paste uniformity in gnome
programs, and menus :)

The Menu system itself is not really that much of a problem as what it
is lacking and some of the things "dumb users" would expect from a menu
system. For the Gnome menu system to be usable the menu system has to be
configurable for the user. Initially the question of the menu system
came up when someone asked me "how do I add something new to a menu".
Granted I could of said use "gmenu, just open up a terminal window" but
I tried to look at it front the point of the user asking me. "I just
want to add something to the menu for crying out loud!!"

Needless to say I was even getting confused as to how I would add stuff
to the menu as a dumb user. Here is a proposal on how to fix things;
Please feel free, to add, modify, delete anything or chuck this out the
window all together.

The "user" of the menu system would like to have control over said menu
system. The way it works now that's not the case, "root" sets the menu
up and the user would just have to deal with her/his gestapo like menu.
That's not fair; There should be a setting in Control Center that allows
"root" to decide whether he/she would like the menu system to be locked
or not. If the menu system is locked it means that everyone has a preset
menu by "root". A system like this would most likely be used in a
networked enviroment or where the system administrator did not want
people to add stuff to their own menu for whatever reason. Whether the
system admin be a BOFH or if it's just a terminal server type of setup.
Should this option not be picked then the user should be able to make
changes to their own menu.

In the latter case there is some functionality that desperately needs to
be changed in the menu system (obviously).  For instance if I click on
"Programs" and then right click anywhere on the menu a select menu
should be presented to me with just a couple of options let's say:

1. Add menu
2. Edit menu
3. Delete menu

For starters; This would allow users to obviously do one of the three.
Also it seems a bit repetitive but putting Gmenu itself under the
"Utilities" menu seems like a feasible idea so if a "dumb" user isn't
smart enough to right click on the main menu itself maybe they'd be
smart enough to find the Menu Editor under "Utilities". 

I don't know if this will make it into Gnome 2.0 but it certainly
doesn't seem as if 2.0 should be released without it. It would seem a
bit premature if a user couldn't add stuff to the menu without hunting
down gmenu or searching all through the Control Center. Regarding the
selection of a default gtk theme, it really is a simple thing to fix, at
least I think, post a couple of gtk themes somewhere and let people
vote. The one with the highest vote becomes "default".

That's all I have.. add, delete, modify.

Thanks.